Touch-up spray gun



Sept. 22, 1931. w. HERSLEB ET AL 1,824,017

TOUCH-UP SPRAY GUN Filed July 18, 1929 uuuu few/U54@ Patented Sept. 2:2, 1931 WILLIAM HEasLEB AND s vEND BINKs Manurnc'ruaine o ILLINOIS Application 1aed Juiy 1s,

Our invention relates to appliances for spraying paints or other liquids in relatively small quantities, for which purpose it is customary to mount the needed spray appliance on a liquid container (or so-called paint cup), so that this container is supported from the spray appliances held in a hand of the user.

Since the needed liquid container is desirably connected to a relatively forward portion of the spray appliance, so as to reduce the length of the liquid passages in which residual paint or other material may dry when the appliance is not in use, the weight of this container and of its contents are unbalanced with respect to the hand of the user if the spray appliance is of a pistolshaped or so-called spray gun7 type having a handle at its rear end. Moreover, the size required for such a rear handle in order that it may convenientlyl be grasped by the hand of a workman is such as to add considerable weight to the spray appliance and container assembly.v 1 l In one of its objects, our'invention aims to overcome these objections by providing a spray appliance adapted to support a liquid container and designed so as that it can conveniently be held in a handl of the user, although not provided with 'a special handle for this purpose. Furthermore, our invention aims to provide a spray appliancearn rangement which will cause the entire assemblage` (namely, the spray appliance, lthe attached liquid container and the portion of the air hose supported by the appliance) to be substantially balanced in the hand of the user.

Still further and also more detailed objects of our invention will appearfrom the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which drawings Fig. l is a side elevation of a sprayl gun embodying our invention, with dotted lines showing a hand holding the same.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged centrahvertical and longitudinal section through the same embodiment,fwith some portions shownin side elevation. 1

' quired andso that the IBRAMSEN, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNORS `TO MPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF v'rouen-Un SPRAY GUN i929. serial No. 379,089.

- 1` ig. 3 is an enlargement of a portion of the body casting as originally bored.

Fig. et is an enlarged bottom view 0f the air valve body.

Figs. 5 and 6 are sections taken respectively along the lines 5-5 and 6 6. of Fig. 4.'

Fig. 7 is a section taken along the line 7-7 of Fig. 2.

Another diiculty encountered with spray appliances of this class, and particularly with the miniature types designed for touching up imperfectly coated spots on surfaces to which a coating has been applied by means of large sized sprayfgumis ythe dilliculty of accurately forming the needed air yand liquid passages in the-body of a cast appliance by means of cores. In practice,the small diametered cores needed for this purpose are apt to be damaged in handling and also are often damaged by the rush lofv the molten metal into the mold, thereby clogging the passages and forming blow holes in the casting,thus causing a waste of castings and of the labor spent in machining these castings to the state in which they can be tested. Our present invention aims to overcome these ditliculties by providing a spray appliance in which those portions of the needed liquid and air passages which are needed in the cast body consist of bores drilled in the initially solid casting, so that 'no coring of th-e casting is reappliance body can have thinner walls around such passages than would be needed if the passages were cored.

Furthermore, our invention aims to provide an unusually compact disposition of the operating parts which permits a decided reduction in the weight of such a spray appliance, which disposes the control lever in convenient position for easy and sensitive operation by th-e hand which vholds the entire assembly, `and which causes an actuating movement ofthe control lever` to open the air valve more rapidly than the liquid valve.

In the illustrated embodiment, the body of rour spraying appliance :(which desirably is cast of aluminum) includes a forward head l; a neck 2 extending rearwardly from the head; and a substantially rectangular upright frame which has its forward vertical member 3 formed by the reary portion of the neck and connected byupper and lower frame mem- Y bers 4 and 5 to the rear frame member 6; a

rlatter with the tail 7.

(namely the part tail 7 projecting rearwardly from the lower rear corner of the frame, a rigid arm S projecting -downward from lthe lower frame member intermediate of the ends of the latter; and a ring 9 upon the rear portion of the upper frame member 4.

VThree longitudinal bores are formed in this initially solid casting from its front; namely an upper neck bore 10 extending from the front of the head to the interior of the said frame, a lower neck bore 11 terminating forwardly of the frame opening, and a bore 12 extending through the forward frame Amember 3 and longitudinally through the lower frame member 5 to the juncture of the This tail desirably extends oblique to the lower frame member and has a longitudinal bore 13 extending into it from its rear end and intercepting the lowest longitudinal bore 12, while a bore 14 extends upward in the forward frame member and connects the longitudinal bores 10 and 12. This vertical bore 14 is crossed by the bore 12 and the part of the bore 12 forward of the said vertical bore is afterwards sealed by almetal plug 15.

After forming the above named the casting, this casting is suitably threaded for screwing a liquid nozzle 16 into the forward end of the upper longitudinal bore 10, a stem guide 17 into the rear end of the same bore, and a retainerring 18 on the head 1 of the casting. VThis retainer ring' overhangs the rear end of a collar 19 which its upon the rearwardly tapering exterior of a suitably perforated air nozzle 2O socketed upon the liquid nozzle 16, thereby affording a spray head construction. Y

The (forward) outlet of the tubular liquid nozzle 16 is controlled by a needle valve having a cylindrical stem 21 which extends slidably through the guide 17 and through a packing l22 within a cover 23 screwed upon this guide, and this stem also extends through a bores in -hrustmember 24 projecting from the rear frame member 6. The thrust member 24 is .threadedinto a bore 25 formed in alinement with the upper bore 10 in the neck. A compression spring 26 has its rear -endengaging the thrust member and its forward end engaging a cup 27 pinned (or otherwise fastened) to the needle valve'stem 21, which cup slides in the threaded bore 25. .v

The upper portion of the vertical bore 14 14 A adjacent tothe upper bore 10) is contracted in diameter'to afford a stop shoulder 28 (Fig. 3) for limiting thelupward insertion of aliquid tube 34, which tube 34 ext-ends into thesaid vertical boreV and has itsv lowerl end portion 33 threaded for attaching a nipple 30 supporting the upper end of the usual riser pipe 31 of a paint cup 32.

lguide bore Vcrank lever about the The intermediate part 34 of the liquid tube which is opposite to and between the bores 11 and 12 is contracted in outside diameter to a size considerably smaller than the diameter of the bore 14, thereby affording a tubularspace connecting the air passage bores 12 and 11. a

The bore 13 in the oblique tail preferably has its forward portion reduced in diameter to fit the forward cylindrical portion 35 of an air valve body which valve has its main portion 36 fitting the bore 13, and the rear end of the tail has an exterior thread 37 Yfor attaching an air hose, which hose 38 is shown diagraminatically in dotted lines in Fig-L l* i The air valvebody has a main bore portion 39 in its larger diametered main portion 36. as shown in Fig. 5, and this lbore portion 39 being continued by a smaller diametered 40 in which the stem 41 of an air valve memberis slidable, and the stem 41 is fast on a head 42 formed for seating on the rear end of the air valve body. A compression spring 43 is interposed between this air valve head 42 andan adjustable tubular stop 44 threaded into the rear end of the tail, so that this springl continually tends to close the air valve.- Y

Pivotrally mounted on the upper frame member 4 on a horizontal axis, as on the stem of a screw 45, is a bell-crank lever including a depending lever arm 46 which extends downward in front of the forward end of the air valve stem 41, and also including an actuating arm 47 extending forward and desirably having afingerpiece 43 formed on itsforward end. Y The lever arm 46 has a perforation 49 K(Fig. 7 through which the needle valve stem (or liquid valve stem) 21 extends, this perforation being of such a size withrrespect to the said valve stem as to permit limited rocking movement of the bellsaid pivoting screw.

The portion of the depending lever arm adjacent to its said perforation 49 is disposed for engaging the cup 27 (which is fastened tothe liquid valve stem by a pin 47) when the lever is rocked (in a direction which would be co-unterclockwise in Figs. 1 and 2,) byA depressing the fingerpiece 50 on the lever; and the fastening of the cup 27 to the stem 21 (as by the pin 47) is so disposed that the lever, when pressed by the spring 43 through the air valve stem 141i until the bore wall of the lever engages the stein as shown in Fig. 2, is' spaced somewhat forwardly from the said cup 27. i

`)Vith tl'ie'partsth'us arranged and assembled, our spray appliance (together with the liquid container 32 and the forward portion of the air hose 38) can readily be supported by a single hand of the user, as for example in the position shown `in Fig. 1. In this position,the downwardly directed arm 8 on the body-y ofthe applianceextendsH between the base ofthe thumb and the vbase` of the forelinger,`while the tail 7 -overhangs the upward'- ly turned innerside of the hand, thus. permitting theappliance Yto beheld vfirmly with a light grip by other Ifingers around the lower portion of the forward frame end andalso allowing the, tip ofthe fforetinger to rest upon the fingerpiece'48.

- When thi finger tip is depressed slightly, it rocksthe lever against vthe resistance of the compression spring` 43,'thereby opening the air valve lirst,so as to admit air through the bore of the tail piece into the main: bore portion 39 ofthe air valve body, and thence through a bottom slot 51 in this valve body into the lowest longitudinal bore 12. c From the bore12, the air passes through the tubular space between the reduced part 34 of the liquid tube and the vertical bore 14 to the lower bore V11V in the neck and-finto the head chamber 52 behind thel air-nozzle 20, thereby supplying air thro-ugh ports 53 in this air nozzle to the jannular air foutlet port 54 between the tip of the liquid nozzle 16 and a central portfinto which this' tip extends.

The resulting forwardly'directed annular jet of air produces a suction at the (forward) outlet of the liquid nozzle, and as soon as the lever is rocked further, so that its depending arm 46 engages the cup 27 and retracts the needle valve stein 21 this suction causes liquid to be drawn from the container through the liquid tube 33 andthe upper longitudinal bore 10 to the bore of the liquid nozzle.

By disposing the parts of our appliance so that the tip of a linger can easily manipulate the lever when the appliance is yeven lightly grasped by the hand of the user, I enable the user to control the valves with a high degree of delicacy, thereby enabling him to project the paint or otherliquid in sprays ranging from quite minute diameters to larger spreads. Consequently, the user can readily effect a highly exact spotting or touching up of parts which need the same.

Moreover, since the air valve stem is further from the pivot of the lever than the needle valve stem, the actuation of the lever moves the air valve stem faster than the liquid valve stem, thus making it easier to proportion the supply of air to that of the liquid.

Furthermore, it will be seen from F ig. 1, that the hand grip for which our appliance is designed places the liquid container forwardly of the rear frame portion 6 which overhano's the hand, while the air hose 38 extends rearwardly beyond the hand. By suitably locating the downwardly directed hand-engaging arm S with respect to the connections :tor the liquid container and the air hose connection, we cause the container and the hand-supported part of the hose substantially to counterbalance each other, so that our appliance is approximately balanced when held asaboveff described. .l Consequently, a quite ilight and non-fatiguing grip =of the usershand suices, andthe convenient disposition of thengerpiece also preventsa tiring of 'the user. f v -1 v j Inassembling our appliance, we desirably apply a lrn of solder to the upperend of the Yliquid tube` S33-before :inserting -the latter in the vertical bore and threading it up against .the .stop shoulder28. We: also desirably apply a lrnof solder to the stop shoulder 54 `on thel airavalve body (namely, the annular shoulder ,54 connecting thetwo dierently Vdiametered parts of'this air valvebody) before inserting the latter in the-tail bore 13.

Then we heatk the 'appliance `bodyf2after the liquid tube and the air valve body have been insertedwithsolderfthus applied to each, toa temperature above the melting point ofthe solder, so,` as tosolder each of these inserted parts'to the shoulders which limit theiry insertion. By= thus proceeding, we prevent an unscrewing'of theliquid tube during Ya `detaching. of the liqnuid container,

and 'also support the air valve odyina position in which theslot 51- affords an ample passage` leading to the klowest bore, 12. c

-By avoiding all coringof theappliance` body, we not only avoid a clogging of passages by broken'cores and holes in wallsl of the casting, but also are able to use considerablythinner walls around the bores, there- -by lightening the appliance, which is highly desirable. By extending the air valve stem intothe` frame opening through which the liquid l,valve stem21 extends, Vwe permit a single Aand short lever-arm to control both valves, thereby. further reducing the size and weight of the -body :of our appliance.

Y However, .this llightening of our-appliance v andour use ofaccurately machined-'bores does not; interfere with ourY providing needed adjustments, as the vpressures ofthe springs 26 and 43can easily` be adjusted by merely rotating the thrust members 24 and the 44 respectively.. ,Nora does our construction interfere with an easy cleaning ofthe passages. An unscrewing of the retaining ring18 and thefliquidfnozzle 16 permits a ready cleaning of the :upper bore 10, and al detaching of the container-supportingnipple, 5 allows the yllli entire liquidpassage togbe flushed with a solvent `for removing any dried material. Likewise a removal of the thrust member 44 permits the spring 43 andthe air valve stem to be ydropped out-,of the tail,vafterl which solvent can readily berun throughl the entire air passages. -V What is more, the thin-walled tubular portions which permitted our use of drilledbores cooperate with the disposition of the frame -in the spray gun body to afford a frame of quite small thickness transversely of ,my appliance, thereby exposing the packing 1 cap 23 f for, convenient', adjustment. Ag I Howevenwhile we have described our invention'in an embodiment including numerous desirableY details Vof construction and arrangements and including awcertain type of spray head, we do not wish to be limited in these respects, since vchanges.mayybe made y Without departing either `fromy the spirit' of our invention or from the appended claims. Nor do we wish to be limited to the employment of novel features of our invention iii-an Y appliance supporting a li uid container and one which feedsthe liqui with a.v siphoning action, although we have found'it particularly suitable i'or that class of spray appliances. y v Y v l We claim as our invention:

l, A, spray appliance body comprising an upright-frame including .end members and longitudinal members, a neck extending forwardly from the forwardv end frame member above the bottom of the latter, and a tail extending from the lower portion of the rear end member ofthe frame; the body having a rear bore extending through the said tail and through'an adjacent member voi' the frame into'the space borderedby thefr'ame members, 'a lower boreextending upwardly into the forward end member, and a longitudinal passage extending within the lower longitudinal fframe member and connecting the rear bore with the lower bore; the neck having a passage leading from the said longitudinal passage to the forward end ofthe neck.

2. A spray appliance body as perv claim l, in which the forward end member of the ltrame hasla continuation bore aliningwith the longitudinal `passage extending' forwardly from the lower bore'throughthe said-forward end member, in combination with means 8. A spray appliancecomprising abody including a neck, a rear end member, two vertically spaced longitudinal members constem extending parallel to the said longitudinal members from theineck into the space between the two longitudinal members,` a. second valve stem extending forwardly from the tail intothe said space and oblique to 'the first valve stem; and a lever pivoted upon theupper longitudinal member for moving both of the valve stems rearwardly; the lever having a forwardly extending actuating arm disposed within reach of a finger of Yaliand grasping the lower longitudinal member, whenV the said arm is restinor against the juncture of the thumb and forefnger ott-hat hand.

5; A spray appliance as per claim 4, in-

` cluding a suspending eye rising from the normally closing Vthe said continuation bore.

necting the neck with the rear end member,

and aV tail projecting rearwardly from the rear end member,fthe tail having a bore extending forwardly through it intov the space between the two longitudinal members; in oombination with a tubular valve body shorter than the said ltail-bore'and 'mounted in the forward end of the latter, the valve body having the rear end of its bore opening in to the rear portion Vofthe tail bore,the valve body having-'a lateral aperture `connecting its bore with the said longitudinal passage. l

4. In a spray appliance, a body member including a neck, a rear end member, two vertically spaced longitudinal members connecting the neck with therear end member, a tail extending rearwardly from the rear end member in oblique continuation of the lower longitudinal member, and 'a rigid holding arm projecting downwardly from the rear end member forwardly'V Vof the tail; a valve 

